FireDos Foam Proportioners for PPG, China: more cost-effective than bladder tanks

PPG (Pittsburgh Plate Glass) is a global supplier of paints, coatings, optical products, and specialty materials with the motto: "We protect and beautify the world". In this case, however, PPG itself was to be protected - from fires on the company premises in China/Zhangjiagang.

The PPG site is a large area that requires a well-thought-out fire protection concept for firefighting with extinguishing foam.

The aim of the fire protection project in Zhangjiagang was to reliably protect an extensive site with production facilities, a warehouse for class A hazardous materials and storage tanks for highly flammable liquids. The initially proposed solution with bladder tanks turned out to be costly, complex, and expensive, as a total of 18 bladder tanks would have been required. FireDos proportioning systems at a central location with remote injection of the firefighting foam concentrate proved to be an elegant and simple solution to reliably cover the entire site.

The crucial aspect of this concept is the remote injection of the firefighting foam agent. Normally, the foam agent is fed into the extinguishing water flow directly at the water motor outlet of the FireDos proportioning system. With remote injection, however, the foam concentrate only enters the extinguishing water flow just before the discharge devices. This ensures prompt foam discharge shortly after the alarm, a crucial requirement in line with Chinese regulations. Achieving this is challenging with the centralized bladder tank solution. 

The remote injection system enables rapid production and discharge of foam premix, even when proportioners are centralized. This is advantageous compared to bladder tank setups, where centralization is impractical for achieving swift foam discharge. Decentralized bladder tank solutions necessitate more tanks, increasing costs and complexity.

If the finished foam compound/water mixture remains in the pipe for a longer period, this leads to degradation processes in the premix and has a detrimental effect on the extinguishing efficiency. 

On the PPG company premises in Zhangjiagang, only four stationary foam proportioning systems with a proportioning rate of 3% of FireDos were installed in total: two FD10000 and two FD15000. Due to the centralized positioning of the proportioning systems with remote injection, the number of systems could be kept very low. In comparison, a total of 18 bladder tanks and their complex controls would have been required to protect the site - an immensely higher construction and control effort. Thanks to the well-thought-out use of FireDos proportioning systems, 50% of the costs could be saved in this project.

Another long-term cost advantage of the FireDos proportioning systems compared to bladder tank technology is that proportioning tests of the extinguishing technology can be carried out completely without the consumption of foam agent or production of foam premix (overview of possible savings), which is also more environmentally friendly.

On extensive sites, an intelligent concept with FireDos foam proportioning systems and remote injection of foam concentrate can be the ideal choice, as it is significantly more cost-effective, space-saving, and easier to install and to maintain than bladder tanks.